Your Pet Guide

American owners always loved to bicolor, colored cats. In England, vice versa, it is cordial dislike to these colors, which become stronger probably because they are difficult in breeding, though this color make cats more beautiful and sight.

You can seldom meet piebald animals on the exhibitions, they say that they are not in fashion, but it turns out that our owner don't know almost anything about this color.


Gene of white Piebald Spotting is called gene of household, it is the most common among all spontaneous mutations, and is showed in many different forms, concerning to limitation of colored pigment in definite colors. Some form of this gene appears in all varieties of domestic animals, but is absence almost in all wild animals. Under the ruthless methods of natural selection, luxurious white marks would mean death. Known exception is zebra. Her stripes serve as camouflage in habitat. Nevertheless, colorful white marks were appreciated and selected by selectionists for continuation of genus in the breeding of domestic animals.

Where did modern colors of bicolor and calico ( tortoiseshell on white) appear from? Today's Persians are, first of all, progeny of longhaired cats, imported to England and other parts of Europe during the middle - end 1800s from geographical regions countries Persia and Turkey of that time. Gene of Piebald Spotting was widespread then, but often was masked by prepotent white color, which is especially well-known in longhaired cats of Turkey.

If to pay attention in the past, we will see that all longhaired cats were prised together on the exhibitions and iffers of breeds were based more on colors, than on differs of type or the country of origin of given animals. Imagination of cats of american selectionists followed the leading at that time English exhibition rules in this attitude, so that on the earliest American exhibitions, for example, all white cats were valued at one class, and it didn't matter if their pedigree went back to Persia, Turkey or local cats from Man state(having occurred in America with first sailors from Europe). This practice almost lost the type of Turkish Angoras cats, who assimilated into the big breed, which became known to us as Persian.

Unfortunately, earlier herd-books of England and America will not allow to follow ways of development of all colors in full. At the beginning of the century bicolored Persians registered and showed and in England, and in the USA. But they were not popular, because there worked pedigree programs of breeding one colored cats (Solids) in England, and active efforts were spent to avoid white spottiness.

In 1904 in one artical, devoted to the review of cat's shows in the attitude of bicolored colors, were said that '...it is more better to put to sleep such many-colored indiviuals at once or to sell them as domestic nurslings than to keep them as sires, spoiling purity, value, and reputation of colors.'

By the time of devision of longhaired breeds into Persians and half longhaired cats at the begiinning of 1900s there wasn't any need in different indication of breed within the category of longhaired till the appearance of Himalayan Persins as breed in 1950s. Bicolors and Calico in British and Americn herd-books rated as non-recognized colors and had a ban for the participation in shows. CFA was the first who attributed Bicolors to recognized (accepted) for the registration. It was common practice of cat organizations in all breeds, that allowed the registration of cats, which was of pure origin, but non-recognized color.

The exact period of time, when Bicolors and Calico were difficult to show, is difficult to find out, but in 1933 EvelynBuckworth-Herne-Soame have written in his impressions from the exhibition about Tortoiseshell on White cat: 'This is the most vividand charming animal. It is a pity that there is no bigger number of such...' At the same year first white-black individuals, which public liked, appeared on the shows and it was accepted to bring bicolored in any other color.

However, after 1933 Bicolors and Calico were officially removed from the shows in the USA right up to 1955 when by the efforts of Dorothy Anderson Calico was approved anew in CFA. Only in 1971 other bicolored colors were accepted. Herd-books show that these colors is saved in the genotype during these 22 years of oblivion, because the gene of white spottines often masked with white.

The decade of 1980ies made a revolution in bicolored colors and in May of 1991 the article of Anthology of Persian cats was published, devoted to these colors, which embraced many features and requorememts for these variation of Persians. At the first time cats of these colors got to the catalogues of winners.

But 80ies brought not only the flash of Bicolors' popularity, but fixed extreme type, in which bicolored Presians became really amazing.
Fast increasing sccesses of bicolored cats made them popular and enough widespread. Since 1991 Bicolors and Kaliko were singled out into separate exhibition classes and divided from Solids for breeding 'within themselves'.

Leading nurseries and ancestors of Persian breeding, specialized on the colors Bicolor became 'Anz' and 'Pajean', breeded first national winners and hundreds Grand-Champions of CFA. Practically all modern lines of Persian Bicolors go back to these nurseries.